Device for reading encoded data interspersed in a printed image

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for reading data encoded as an array of dots printed on a substrate together with an image. The dots of the array are substantially invisible to an average unaided human eye. The apparatus includes a light source for illuminating the substrate; a detector for receiving the illumination from the light source reflected off the substrate, the detector outputting a first signal representative of the array of dots, the detector extending a distance that is less than a width of the substrate; a decoder interconnected to said detector for receiving and decoding said first signal to obtain the data encoded by the array of dots; and a top substrate covering the detector and the light source. The top substrate has an emission portion and a reception portion. The emission portion is shaped with a semicircular cross section adapted to focus illumination from the light source onto the substrate. The reception portion is shaped to define a series of microlenses adapted to focus illumination reflected off the substrate into the detector.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No.10/636223 filed on Aug. 8, 2003, which is a Continuation Application ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/693317, filed on Oct. 20, 2000, now issuedPat. No. 7,535,582, all of which is herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for printing out orduplicating photographs from information recorded in infrared ink on thetop of the photograph using an ink jet printing system.

CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present inventionare disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by theapplicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with thepresent application:

U.S. Patent Application Seriel Number

6,496,654

6,859,225

6,924,835

6,647,369

6,943,830

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated hereinby reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present inventionare disclosed in the following co-pending application filed by theapplicant or assignee of the present invention on 10 Jul. 1998:

6,786,420

6,459,495

6,398,328

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated hereinby reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present inventionare disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by theapplicant or assignee of the present invention on Jun., 30, 2000:

6,471,331

6,676,250

6,347,864

6,439,704

6,425,700

6,588,952

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The applicant has previously described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785method and apparatus for printing out images using an ink jet printingsystem on a print media using a pagewidth ink jet printhead. The imagecan also be transformed by an image processing program loaded into thecamera system for providing various effects on the image. The applicanthas also disclosed recording data on the back of a printed photographwhich can be used to reprint or recover the image which is printed onthe front of the print media sheet. Such a printing system requires thatthere are two printheads one for printing the image itself and one forprinting the data in an encoded fault tolerant form on the back of thephotograph.

In applicant's U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,824, a method and apparatus forreproducing a photograph for example, printed using a camera system suchas disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785 isdisclosed.

In EP 354,581, a music score is encoded as a matrix of dots along amargin on a sheet and the data is read by a linear scanner. The scannerreads the width of the matrix which is much less than the width of themusic score sheet. The amount of data encoded and therefore requiringprocessing is limited. Eight rows of binary data are used to record themusic score in a 12 row matrix. The scanner is hand held and reading thedata can result in errors if the angle of the linear scanner is toolarge such that the width of the scanner does not fully cover the widthof the matrix. The invention disclosed in EP 354,581 has limited use andthe disclosure does not suggest itself to use with a credit card sizedata card (e.g. 55 mm×85 mm) as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781.

In the article, “Optical Sheet Memory System”, Shinji Ohyama,Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part 2, Vol. 75 No.4, 1992, pp73-85, a system for recording a number of images and a duration of soundon a postcard size sheet using printed dots is disclosed. Postcards aremass-produced using a “precision printing method” the substance of whichis not described. This system while similar to applicant's U.S. Ser. No.09/112,785 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,824 does not provide for a portableon-demand print imaging system nor does it provide an output with both aviewable image and an encoded recoverable form thereof. The postcard isunusable without a data reader.

The applicant has disclosed in co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No.09/693,471, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083 and U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134 filedconcurrently herewith, methods for recording data relating to an imagecaptured by a camera system on top of or coincident with the printing ofthe image itself, that is, the image and the data are recorded on thesame side and in the same area of the print media. Such a methodrequires a pagewidth ink jet printhead having at least four ink jetnozzles per printed “dot”, three for printing the color image namely forprinting with cyan, magenta and yellow inks and one for printing with aninfra-red ink for printing the data corresponding to the image after ithas been processed into an encoded fault tolerant digital form.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is disclosed anapparatus for reading data encoded as an array of dots printed on asubstrate together with an image. The dots of the array aresubstantially invisible to an average unaided human eye. The apparatusincludes a light source for illuminating the substrate; a detector forreceiving the illumination from the light source reflected off thesubstrate, the detector outputting a first signal representative of thearray of dots, the detector extending a distance that is less than awidth of the substrate; a decoder interconnected to said detector forreceiving and decoding said first signal to obtain the data encoded bythe array of dots; and a top substrate covering the detector and thelight source. The top substrate has an emission portion and a receptionportion. The emission portion is shaped with a semicircular crosssection adapted to focus illumination from the light source onto thesubstrate. The reception portion is shaped to define a series ofmicrolenses adapted to focus illumination reflected off the substrateinto the detector.

In another aspect of the disclosed invention, there is provided anapparatus for decoding the data printed on a photograph and printing outan image decoded from said data on a print media. The data printed ontop of the image may be a digital representation of the image itself inan encoded fault tolerant digital form, or the image so encoded and animage processing program for producing a particular effect upon theimage, or two images, one being the image per se and the other being theimage as transformed by an image processing program. In the former casethe image itself can be printed out notwithstanding substantial damageto the print media upon which the image and the encoded image data isrecorded. In the second case the image can be printed out in itsoriginal form or as modified by the image processing program recordedalong with that image data. In the third case either the image per se orthe image as transformed can be printed out. The data which is recordedon the photographic image is encoded in such a way that even ifsubstantial damage occurs to the surface of the photograph, the datawill allow recovery of the image. This is possible by suitableduplication and redundancy in the data compression and scrambling of thedata and encoding the data in a fault tolerant, for example aReed-Solomon, code form. The size of the photograph is approximately4″×6″ (102 mm×152 mm). The data can be recorded on substantially thewhole area of the photograph in a variety of formats, one of which is torecord it as a series of data blocks (the so-called “alternativeArtcard” format) and another of which is to record the data continuouslyover the data area as a series of columns (the so-called “Artcard”format) both of which are described in detail in U.S. Ser. No.09/112,781 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785. The former method of encoding,described in applicant's co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No.09/693,471, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134, wouldallow recovery of the image even if one third of the data blocks weredamaged. Other sizes of print media are also disclosed for example apanoramic print which is approximately the same height but twice thewidth of the standard print 4″×6″ described above.

By having the image data recorded on the image itself the need to have aseparate photographic negative and to store it along with the photographis avoided. Presently, the storage of image data in a digital form is ona computer system and is subject to the limited capacity of the harddrive, the ability to find the data and the risk of damage to the harddrive storing the data, the obsolescence of the hard drive, or theobsolescence of the image data format. These defects are avoided in thecurrent arrangement whereby the data is recoverable if the photographitself is available, if it has not suffered more than one third damage,that is approximately two thirds is available for processing.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosed invention, there isprovided an apparatus for reading digital data printed on a photographin infrared ink, wherein the data is encoded image data from a camerasystem. The apparatus includes a scanner means for scanning data ininfrared printed on the photograph; means for advancing the print mediathrough the scanning means; means for illuminating the print media withinfrared radiation; means for processing data output from said scannermeans including means for decoding said data; ink jet printer means forprinting out the image derived from said decoded data on a print mediaattached to said ink jet printer means.

The encoded fault tolerant digital data may also be reprinted on top ofthe recovered or replicated image if the ink jet printhead hasprovisions for printing in the necessary number of colors, namely cyan,magenta, yellow and infrared. If the photograph is undamaged then adirect copying or replication of the infrared data and/or color imagecan be produced in the manner of the applicant's method and apparatusdisclosed in the application U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,824. If the photographis damaged then the full data would have to be recovered before beingprinted and, if required encoded again into its fault tolerant digitalform for print out simultaneously with the image on the print media.Other versions of the image can also be printed if the apparatus isprovided with means for reading an “Artcard” and for processing the datareceived therefrom in the manner as described in U.S. Ser. No.09/112,781 and U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785 by the applicant. In thisinstance, the Artcard reader may be the same device as the photographscanning means or may be a separate integer. An Artcard as disclosed insaid applications is of a credit card size approximately 55 mm×85 mm andthe scanning means for scanning a photograph as required for the presentinvention would be wider to accommodate the 102 mm×152 mm (4″×6″) sizeof the photograph. In that case, the scanner means may be provided withmeans for accommodating various width cards for example, for alteringthe size of the slot through which the Artcard or the photograph is tobe inserted.

The print media used to print out the recovered or duplicated photographis the same as the photograph itself namely approximately 102 mm×152 mm(4″×6″), although it is contemplated that the print media may be of alarger size such as to provide a panoramic print of the same height butapproximately twice the width of the standard photograph. A panoramicprint may require an image processing program to be employed using theappropriate Artcard for that purpose or the original photograph may havebeen a panoramic print with the encoded data including the necessaryimage processing program encoded therewith, for example as described inthe applicant's application U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of thepresent invention, preferred forms of the invention will now bedescribed, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates one form of card reader according to the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exploded view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a side perspective view, partly in section, of oneform of construction of CCD reader unit;

FIG. 4 illustrates a checkerboard pattern with which the data surfacemay be modulated;

FIG. 5 illustrates the reading process; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the steps necessary to decode data read in from aphotograph; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a printer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Dots

The dots printed on the photograph are in infrared ink over a colorimage. Consequently a “data dot” is physically different from a“non-data dot”. When the photograph is illuminated by an infrared sourcehaving complementary spectral properties to the absorption or responsecharacteristics of the infrared (IR) ink the data appears as amonochrome display of “black” on “white” dots. The black dots correspondto dots were the IR ink is and has absorbed the IR illumination and“white” dots correspond to areas of the color image over which no IR inkhas been printed and reflecting the IR illumination substantiallyunattenuated or only partially attenuated. Hereinafter the terms blackand white as just defined will be used when referring to the IR ink dotsrecording data.

Data Card Reader

FIG. 1, illustrates one form of card reader 500 which allows for theinsertion of a photograph 9 for reading. FIG. 2 shows an explodedperspective of the reader of FIG. 1. The card reader is interconnectedto a computer system and includes a CCD reading mechanism 35. The cardreader includes pinch rollers 506, 507 for pinching an insertedphotograph 9. One of the rollers e.g. 506 is driven by a motor 37 forthe advancement of the photograph 9 between the two rollers 506 and 507at a uniform speed. The photograph 9 is passed over a series of infrared(IR) LEDs 512 which are encased within an IR transparent mould 514having a semi circular cross section. The cross section focuses the IRfrom the LEDs e.g. 512 onto the surface of the photograph 9 as it passesby the LEDs 512. From the surface it is reflected to a high resolutionlinear CCD 34 which is constructed to a resolution of approximately 4800dpi. The CCD reader includes a bottom substrate 516 and a top substrate514. In between the two substrates is inserted the linear CCD array 34which comprises a thin long linear CCD array constructed by means ofsemi-conductor manufacturing processes.

The surface of the photograph 9 is encoded to the level of approximately1600 dpi hence, the linear CCD 34 supersamples the photograph's surfacewith an approximately three times multiplier. The photograph 9 isfurther driven at a speed such that the linear CCD 34 is able tosupersample in the direction of photograph movement at a rate ofapproximately 4800 readings per inch. The scanned CCD data is forwardedfrom the reader to processing unit 31 for processing. A sensor 49, whichcan comprise a light sensor acts to detect the presence of thephotograph 13.

Turning to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a side perspective view, partlyin section, of an example construction of the CCD reader unit. Theseries of LEDs e.g. 512 are operated to emit infrared (IR) radiationwhen a photograph 9 is passing across the surface of the CCD reader 34.The emitted IR radiation is transmitted through a portion of the topsubstrate 523. The substrate includes a portion e.g. 529 having a curvedcircumference so as to focus IR radiation emitted from LED 512 to apoint e.g. 532 on the surface of the photograph 9. The focused IRradiation is reflected from the point 532 towards the CCD array 34. Aseries of microlenses e.g. 534, shown in exaggerated form, are formed onthe surface of the top substrate 523. The microlenses 523 act to focusIR radiation received across the surface to be focused down to a point536 which corresponds to a point on the surface of the CCD reader 34 forsensing of IR radiation falling on the IR sensing area of the CCD array34.

A number of refinements of the above arrangement are possible. Forexample, the sensing devices on the linear CCD 34 may be staggered. Thecorresponding microlenses 34 can also be correspondingly formed as tofocus IR into a staggered series of spots so as to correspond to thestaggered CCD sensors. The CCD array may only cover a part of the widthof the photograph being scanned (for example, a half) and a microlensarray or other optical arrangement may be utilized to enable radiationfrom the full width of the photograph to be collected for detection.Suitable linear CCD arrays sensitive to infrared radiation are thoseused in facsimile machines or flat bed scanners. For a description ofthe construction and operation of linear CCD devices, reference is madeto a standard text such as in “CCD arrays, cameras and displays” byGerald C Holst, published 1996 by SPIE Optical Engineering Press.Further, suitable sensor devices are regularly described in the IEEETransactions on Consumer Electronics.

To assist reading, the data surface area of the photograph 9 ismodulated with a checkerboard pattern as shown with reference to FIG. 4.A portion of the data 25 is shown in schematic form and the datacomprises an array of IR dots which is additionally modulated by a highfrequency “checkerboard” pattern 21 added to the data so as to assist insensing of the encoded data. Other forms of high frequency modulationmay be possible however.

A printer is provided in combination with the scanner for printing outthe image data on the photograph after it has been read and decoded. Forexample, the applicant's Artcard reader or an Artcam with an integralArtcard reader as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785 modified toaccommodate reading in the infra-red of a wider and longer card and towhich print means can be removably attached can be used for thesepurposes.

A suitable printhead is disclosed in applicant's U.S. Ser. No.09/608,308, U.S. Ser. No. 09/608,779, U.S. Ser. No. 09/607,987, U.S.Ser. No. 09/608,776, U.S. Ser. No. 09/607,250, and U.S. Ser. No.09/607,991 applications, which disclose a 6-ink ink jet pagewidthprinthead for printing an A4 size page (210 mm×275 mm or 8″×11½″). Inthe current invention the photograph print media may be 4″×6″ (102mm×152 mm ) requiring a printhead of approximately half the width asdisclosed therein.

Reading Data From the CCD—General Considerations

In what follows, it is assumed that the data is encoded on a photographusing the so-called “Artcard” format as disclosed in applicant's U.S.Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785 in a data area of 97mm×147 mm for a 102 mm×152 mm photograph (4″×6″) with 2.5 mm borders(0.1″). In this format the data area is continuous and bordered bytargets at the leading and trailing edges of the data area and by otherindicia along the top and bottom margins to ensure correct reading ofthe data notwithstanding up to 1° rotation of the photograph withrespect to the linear CCD IR sensor's orientation. The data is scrambledand encoded using a Reed-Solomon algorithm or process. In addition, thedata may be compressed before encoding and scrambling. The data may beimage data from a camera system, image data and an image processingprogram, or two images, one the image as photographed and another animage as transformed by an image processing program such as described inapplicant's co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,471, U.S. Ser.No. 09/693,083, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the reading process has 4 phases operatedwhile the pixel data is read from the card. The phases are as follows:

Phase 1. Detect data area on photograph

Phase 2. Detect bit pattern from photograph based on CCD pixels, andwrite as bytes.

Phase 3. Descramble and XOR the byte-pattern

Phase 4. Decode data (Reed-Solomon decode)

The photograph 9 must be sampled at at least double the printedresolution to satisfy Nyquist's Theorem. In practice it is better tosample at a higher rate than this. Preferably, the pixels are sampled at3 times the resolution of a printed dot in each dimension, requiring 9pixels to define a single dot. Thus if the resolution of the photograph9 is 1600 dpi, and the resolution of the sensor 34 is 4800 dpi, thenusing a 100 mm width CCD image sensor (98.7 mm is required to cover thewidth of the data area of 97 mm×147 mm with margins of 2.5 mm printed at1600 dpi print resolution and allowing for up to a 1° rotation of aphotograph of 4″×6″ or 102 mm×152 mm ) results in 18900 pixels percolumn (100*1600*3/25.4). Therefore if a photograph stores 8 MB of dotdata (at 9 pixels per dot) then this entails 8 MB*8*9/18900=30,476columns or approximately 30,500 columns. Of course if a dot is notexactly aligned with the sampling CCD the worst and most likely case isthat a dot will be sensed over a 16 pixel area (4×4).

A photograph 9 may be slightly warped due to heat damage, slightlyrotated (up to, say 1 degree) due to differences in insertion into areader, and can have slight differences in true data rate due tofluctuations in the speed of the reader motor 37. These changes willcause columns of data from the card not to be read as correspondingcolumns of pixel data. A 1 degree rotation in the photograph 9 can causethe pixels from a column on the photograph to be read as pixels acrossapproximately 305 columns.

Finally, the photograph 9 should be read in a reasonable amount of timewith respect to the human operator. The data on the photograph coversmost of the surface, so timing concerns can be limited to the dataitself. A reading time of approximately 3 seconds is adequate.

If the photograph is loaded in 3 seconds, then all 30,500 columns ofpixel data must be read from the CCD 34 in 3 seconds, i.e. 10,167columns per second. Therefore the time available to read one column is0.0000984 seconds. Pixel data can be written to a DRAM, for example of 8Mbytes one column at a time, completely independently from any processesthat are reading the pixel data.

The time to write one column of data to DRAM is reduced by using anumber of cache lines, for example, 8 cache lines. If 4 lines werewritten out at one time, 4 banks of DRAM can be written toindependently, and thus overlap latency reduced.

DRAM Size

The amount of memory required for reading and decoding of the encodeddata is ideally minimized. The typical placement of a reader is in anembedded system where memory resources are limited, for example as afeature of an Artcam as described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S.Ser. No. 09/112,785. This is made more problematic by the effects ofrotation as the more the photograph is rotated, the more scanlines arerequired to effectively recover original IR dots.

There is a trade-off between algorithmic complexity, user perceiveddelays, robustness, and memory usage. One of the simplest readeralgorithms would be to simply scan the whole photograph and then toprocess the whole data without real-time constraints. Not only wouldthis require huge reserves of memory, it would take longer than a readeralgorithm that occurred concurrently with the reading process.

The actual amount of memory required for reading and decoding aphotograph is twice the amount of space required to hold the encodeddata, together with a small amount of scratch space (1-2 Mbyte).

Decoding the Data

A simple look at the data sizes shows the impossibility of fitting theprocess into, for example, 8 MB of memory for example, as used in theapplicant's Artcard reader of U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 if the entirepixel data (560 MB if each bit is read as a 3×3 array) as read by thelinear CCD 34 is kept. For this reason, the reading of the linear CCD,decoding of the bitmap, and the un-bitmap process should take place inreal-time (while the photograph 9 is traveling past the linear CCD 34),and these processes must effectively work without having entire datastores available.

The unscrambling process requires two sets of 8 MB areas of memory sinceunscrambling cannot occur in place.

It is assumed here that the data was encoded using the Artcard format asdescribed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785 with acheckerboard modulation. In the Artcard format, the data is printed in acontinuous data area the start and end of which is marked by targets,for example 16 targets for a card of 55 mm×85 mm, each target having awhite dot in the centre of an array of 31×31 black dots with the databeginning 24 dots from that central dot. For a card of 4″×6″ (102 mm×152mm ) size, 32 similar targets may be used. Alternatively, the data mayhave been recorded in the “alternative Artcard” format which is equallydisclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785; or in U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,471,U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134. In this format, datais arranged in data blocks having specific characteristics wherein thedata blocks are locatable by a distinctive set of targets.

Turning now to FIG. 6, there is shown a flowchart 220 of the stepsnecessary to decode the data. These steps include reading in thephotographic data 221, decoding the read data to produce correspondingencoded XORed scrambled bitmap data 223. Next a checkerboard XOR isapplied to the data to produce encoded scrambled data 224. This data isthen unscrambled 227 to produce data 225 before this data is subjectedto Reed-Solomon decoding to produce the original raw data 226.Alternatively, unscrambling and XOR process can take place together, notrequiring a separate pass of the data. Each of the above steps isdiscussed in detail in the applicant's applications U.S. Ser. No.09/112,781 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785. As noted previously withreference to FIG. 5, the process of scanning data therefore, has 4phases, the first 2 of which are time-critical, and must take placewhile pixel data is being read from the CCD.

The four phases are described in more detail as follows.

Phase 1.

As the photograph 9 moves past the CCD 34 the start of the data areamust be detected by robustly detecting special targets on the photographto the left of the data area. If these cannot be detected, thephotograph is rejected as invalid. The detection must occur inreal-time, while the photograph 9 is moving past the CCD 34.

If necessary, rotation invariance can be provided. In this case, thetargets, as described in applicant's U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S.Ser. No. 09/112,785, are repeated on the right side of the photograph,but relative to the bottom right corner instead of the top corner. Inthis way the targets end up in the correct orientation if the card isinserted the “wrong” way. Phase 3 below can be altered to detect theorientation of the data, and account for the potential rotation.

Phase 2.

Once the data area has been determined, the main read process begins,placing pixel data from the CCD into a ‘data window’, detecting bitsfrom this window, assembling the detected bits into bytes, andconstructing a byte-image in DRAM. This must all be done while thephotograph is moving past the CCD.

Phase 3.

Once all the pixels have been read from the data area, the motor 37 canbe stopped, and the byte image descrambled and XORed. Although notrequiring real-time performance, the process should be fast enough notto annoy the human operator. The process must take 8 MB of scrambledbit-image and write the unscrambled/XORed bit-image to a separate 8 MBimage.

Phase 4.

The final phase in the read process is the Reed-Solomon decodingprocess, where the 8 MB bit-image is decoded into a 4 MB valid imagedata area. Again, while not requiring real-time performance it is stillnecessary to decode quickly with regard to the human operator. If thedecode process is valid, the card is marked as valid. If the decodefailed, any duplicates of data in the bit-image are attempted to bedecoded, a process that is repeated until success or until there are nomore duplicate images of the data in the bit image.

The four phase process described requires 18 MB of DRAM. 8 MB isreserved for Phase 2 output, and 2 MB is reserved for scratch dataduring phases 1 and 2.

A description of the actual operation of each phase is provided ingreater detail in U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 and U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,785for a data card 55 mm×85 mm and storing 2 MBytes of data.

If the data was encoded and printed on the photograph, using the“alternative Artcard” format, such as described in U.S. Ser. No.09/693,471, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134, thenthe procedure for reading and recovering the data is substantially asdescribed in applicant's applications U.S. Ser. No. 09/112,781 or U.S.Ser. No. 09/112,785.

Print Out Decoded Data

Once the data has been recovered, the image, the image as transformed bythe encoded image processing program or either of these, depending onwhether the data recorded on the photograph is, for example, asdisclosed in applicant's co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No.09/693,471, U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,083 or U.S. Ser. No. 09/693,134, can beprinted out using an ink jet printhead 516 (FIG. 7) of the requiredcharacteristics. If only the image is to be printed a 3-ink ink jetprinthead will suffice. If the image and the encoded data is to beprinted then an at least 4-ink ink jet printhead would be necessary.

If the data can be stored either in the printer 500 or in a RAM area ofthe processor which decodes the encoded data then the printer can beprovided with means for enabling copies of the image to be printed asdesired, for example dedicated switches or at least a numeric keypad.Alternatively, if a number of copies is required, the photograph may bepassed repeatedly through the scanner.

The foregoing description has been limited to specific embodiments ofthis invention. It will be apparent, however, that variations andmodifications may be made to the invention, with the attainment of someor all of the advantages of the invention. For example, it will beappreciated that the invention may be embodied in either hardware orsoftware in a suitably programmed digital data processing system, bothof which are readily accomplished by those of ordinary skill in therespective arts. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims tocover all such variations and modifications as come within the truespirit and scope of the invention.

1. An apparatus for reading data encoded as an array of dots printed ona substrate together with an image, the dots of the array beingsubstantially invisible to an average unaided human eye, the apparatuscomprising: a light source for illuminating the substrate; a detectorfor receiving the illumination from the light source reflected off thesubstrate, the detector outputting a first signal representative of thearray of dots, the detector extending a distance that is less than awidth of the substrate; a decoder interconnected to said detector forreceiving and decoding said first signal to obtain the data encoded bythe array of dots; and a top substrate covering the detector and thelight source, the top substrate having an emission portion and areception portion, the emission portion shaped with a semicircular crosssection adapted to focus illumination from the light source onto thesubstrate, and the reception portion shaped to define a series ofmicrolenses adapted to focus illumination reflected off the substrateinto the detector.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light sourceemits infra-red light.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detectoris a linear CCD array.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thereception portion spans a width of the substrate.